Chapter 5 - The Siege of Moretti Manor
My breath hitched in my throat as I stared at the surveillance screen.
“Marco!” I shouted, spinning around to face the guard standing at the vault door.
Marco immediately raised his weapon, his eyes darting around the secure room. “What is it, ma'am?”
“Look at camera seven!” I pointed frantically at the bottom monitor. “The rear fence! There are men coming through the woods!”
Marco lunged toward the desk, pressing his face close to the screen. His expression turned grim instantly. He hit a red button on the master console and grabbed his radio.
“Don! We have a breach at sector four! Repeat, active breach at sector four! Heavy armaments!”
Static roared back over the speaker, followed by Adrian’s sharp voice. “I copy. Marco, lock down the subterranean suite immediately! Do not open that door for anyone except me!”
“Understood, Don!” Marco slammed his hand down on the override switch.
A secondary steel shutter began to slide down over the heavy vault door, sealing us off entirely from the rest of the house. But before the shutter could lock into place, a massive explosion shook the floor beneath our feet.
The lights flickered and died, plunging the bunker into pitch-black darkness for two agonizing seconds before emergency red backup lights hummed to life.
A deafening volley of automatic gunfire echoed down the concrete hallway outside. Shouts, screams, and the dull thuds of body armor absorbing impacts vibrated through the steel walls.
“They cut the main power grid!” Marco yelled, unholstering a sidearm and handing it to me across the desk. “Do you know how to use this?”
I stared at the heavy black pistol in my hands. My hands were shaking so violently I almost dropped it. “I... I’ve never fired a gun in my life!”
“ racking the slide loads a round,” Marco barked, stepping toward the narrowing gap of the steel door. “Safety is off. Point and pull the trigger if anyone who isn't Adrian walks through that frame!”
Outside the door, the sounds of battle grew terrifyingly close. A flashbang grenade detonated in the corridor, sending a blinding shockwave through the gap. Marco grunted, staggering back, his hand flying to his eyes.
Through the smoke swirling into the room, a heavy boot kicked against the steel frame. A man dressed in black tactical gear slammed into the room, raising a suppressed rifle.
Before Marco could raise his weapon, the intruder fired two precise shots into Marco’s chest. Marco collapsed onto the concrete floor with a heavy thud, his gun clattering across the room.
I screamed, backing away toward the bed, grabbing Gabriel with one arm and raising the pistol with the other.
The intruder stepped over Marco’s body, his rifle trained on me. Through his tactical visor, cold dark eyes locked onto mine.
“Madeline Vance,” a raspy, accented voice sneered. “Salvatore Rossi sends his regards. You’re coming with us.”
“Get back!” I screamed, aiming the heavy weapon at his chest with both hands. “Get away from my baby!”
“Drop the gun, girl,” the man mocked, taking a slow step forward. “You don't even know how to hold—”
BANG!
The recoil of the gun slammed into my wrists, sending a shockwave up my arms. The shot was loud, deafening in the enclosed space.
The bullet struck the man square in the shoulder. He grunted in pain, staggering back a step, dropping his rifle.
I didn't pause. Driven by a primal, maternal fury I didn't know I possessed, I pulled the trigger again.
BANG!
The second shot hit his chest armor. He stumbled backward out of the doorway, collapsing into the hallway.
Before another intruder could take his place, a flash of motion swept through the corridor outside.
Adrian’s voice echoed like thunder through the heavy smoke. “GET AWAY FROM MY FAMILY!”
The distinct roar of a high-caliber shotgun shattered the hallway. Two bodies dropped. Adrian rolled his wheelchair straight through the heavy smoke, his face spattered with blood, a tactical shotgun held firmly in his hands.
He cleared the doorway, swept his weapon across the room, and locked eyes with me.
I was standing beside the bed, weapon raised, shaking hysterically, tears streaming down my face, shielding Gabriel with my body.
Adrian dropped the shotgun into his lap and rolled toward me at full speed. “Madeline!”
I dropped the hand gun onto the bed and fell into his arms as he reached me. Adrian wrapped his left arm tightly around my waist, pulling me and Gabriel against his chest, while his right hand held a freshly loaded sidearm aimed at the doorway.
“Are you hit? Did they touch you?” Adrian demanded, his voice frantic, searching my body for wounds.
“No! No, I’m okay! Gabriel is okay!” I sobbed into his shoulder. “Marco... Marco is—”
“I know,” Adrian said grimly, looking at his fallen security officer. “He died protecting you. He did his job.”
Outside, the gunfire began to taper off as Adrian’s primary strike force secured the hallway, clearing the remaining attackers.
Adrian pulled a satellite phone from his pocket and pressed a speed-dial button.
“This is Moretti,” Adrian said, his voice dropping into an ice-cold, murderous register. “Initiate Protocol Black. Call every captain on the East Coast. Tell them Salvatore Rossi has crossed the line.”
He listened for a second, then looked at me, his eyes glowing with an absolute, terrifying authority.
“I want Rossi’s entire empire dismantled by sunrise,” Adrian commanded into the phone. “Kill every man who wears his crest. Leave nothing standing.”
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He hung up the phone and looked back at me, reaching out to cup my jaw gently.
“It’s over, Madeline,” Adrian whispered. “No more running. No more hiding. You are my wife now, whether the world likes it or not. And no one will ever threaten our family again.”
